Tag Archives: nytimes

This is one of the most heinous crimes i have ever heard about. Andrew mentioned it in his earlier news round up, but these details are going to be the news, especially i the context of increased awareness of crimes against gay people. Be warned, the NYTimes reporters share a great deal of graphic detail in this piece from tomorrow's paper, online now. From the piece:

“These suspects deployed terrible, wolf-pack odds of nine against one, which revealed them as predators whose crimes were as cowardly as they were despicable,” Police Commissioner said as he described the attacks in grim detail at a news conference at Police Headquarters.,

In the piece it sounds as though police did a good and professional job of investigating but that the perpetrators might still be at large were it not for the single neighbor who slipped a note to one of the officers at the scene and shared enough information for them to track and arrest these guys today and yesterday. The victims were hesitant to come forward immediately beccuase of the serious threats mad about what would happen if they did speak to authorities.

Though stories that hit on Friday nights typically disappear by Monday. It's clear to me that i won't forget this for a long time, nor will many others. You need to read about it, but again, i warn of the graphic description.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker

The Prop 8 case may be going to the Supreme Court sooner than expected — sometime this week.

Not the entire case. Just the motion to extend District Judge Vaughn Walker’s stay.

If the 9th Circuit Court opts not to extend the stay, the defendants in the case may take the case to the Supreme Court.

The argument by anti-gay marriage forces is that the stay needs to be extended to protect those who may marry. If the stay is lifted, those people may suffer harm. Nice of them to be so worried.

According to the New York Times, the anti-marriage folks would be facing an uphill battle on this issue, even with conservative members of the Supreme Court.

First, the interveners who’ve defended Prop 8 in the lower courts would have to convince the high court that this is their battle to fight. The state is the named defendant, but California’s governor and attorney general have declined to defend the marriage ban. In his decision last week allowing the stay to expire this Wednesday afternoon, Judge Walker questioned the defendants’ standing.

In the past, conservative members of the high court have taken narrow views about who has standing in appeals. No matter how much Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito may despise the idea of same-sex marriage, allowing this group to appeal the case when the named defendants have declined to do so would go against precedent.